Pull-Ups... How Wide Is Too Wide???

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

The only way I know how to pose this question is: How wide is too wide to go on pull ups?

2

I guess too wide would be when your chin is already above the bar in the starting position.

Seriously though, you will probably experience some wrist discomfort going ultra wide. The lats are activated more with a more normal grip anyway, so I don’t see why you would go really really wide unless you have some special reason.

3

I’ve read that around shoulder with is best and doesn’t create to much stress on your joints. I’ve had the best success in strength and muscle growth using shoulder width grips.

4

how wide can you go?
Just for the sake of conversation- Sometimes we use elastic bands hung from the top of the cage and the bar through them for pulldowns in the same plane and at the same width as we use for benching.Sometimes superwide, sometimes a little less.It all hits different muscles at different points.

5

The conventional pullup movement doesn’t lend itself to grips more than about three feet apart.

The iron cross, however, has no such limitation. My gym has cable machines with accessory elbow straps that hang down from the pullup mounts. By adjusting which portion of your arm is supported, you can vary the tension to any level you desire with much less stress on the shoulder.

DI

6

[quote]KnightRT wrote:

The iron cross, however, has no such limitation. My gym has cable machines with accessory elbow straps that hang down from the pullup mounts. By adjusting which portion of your arm is supported, you can vary the tension to any level you desire with much less stress on the shoulder.

DI
[/quote]

If you have a pair of rings, one very entertaining pull you can do is a pull-up to half-cross. You begin from the bottom of a pull-up, but you push your hand out as you pull up, so that you finish with your chin by your pull-up arm and and your other arm at a ninety degree angle to your torso - half-cross position. This is much easier than an iron cross (I have a long way to go before I acheive the latter, but I can easily do the former), but it is fun and seems to work the pulling muscles of the back in a different way than a normal pull-up.